The Ballad of Barkhorn and Yeager
by symbiotic
Summary: After the jet striker incident over Romagna, Shirley starts spending a lot more time with Gertrud. And as Gertrud regains her strength and continues her fight against the neuroi, she starts finding something else develop inside her. GertrudxShirley. Montage style with short chapters. Season 2 in the beginning. AU later.
1. Peeling Potatoes

**AN: This was an attempt at a class exercise to write a story which is essentially a montage of scenes with a very loose plot attached. And hey, there's a lack of GertrudxShirley pairing fics on here, so why not?! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!**

**-Symbiotic**

* * *

After defying the orders of her superiors and nearly losing her life by flying with a faulty ME-262 prototype jet striker, Gertrud was ultimately sentenced by her compatriot and commanding officer, Minna Dietlinde-Wilcke, to peeling potatoes until further notice. It was during this sentence of culinary labor that Gertrud began to notice Shirley, who usually spent time in the hangar of their Romagnan air base fixing and modifying her P51 striker, start to poke her head in on her while she peeled the potatoes like a rabbit eying a chance at a meal.

Gertrud didn't care much for Shirley's checkups at first. The last thing she wanted to see during her sentence was the person she saw as her rival smiling at her from the corner while she peeled the potatoes. She managed to pay no heed to the visits at first, telling herself to maintain silence and discipline while Shirley watched her from across the room. Eventually Shirley forced Gertrud to break her cloistered mannerisms when, during one particularly long session of potato peeling, Shirley made her away across the room, pulled up a wooden chair, and sat alongside the Karlsland witch. Gertrud continued to shave the skin off the potato in her hand and never took her eyes off of it.

"If you're trying to start something then you'll have to wait," Gertrud said bluntly.

"Start something?" Shirley said. She let out a boisterous laugh and leaned back in her seat. Gertrud remained focused on the potatoes, unintentionally digging the potato peeler into the potato and sheering off a chunk of the white tuber. "Why Trude, I'm taken aback! Why would I, Captain Charlotte Elsa Yeager of the United States of Liberion Army Air Corps and the fastest witch in the world, feel the need to 'start something' with you?"

Gertrud gnashed her teeth and continued to peel the potato in her hand, not paying any attention to Shirley's talk. But Shirley wouldn't even let her stay quiet. "Is there a chance though you have an extra potato peeler on you?"

Gertrud shot her head over at the Liberion witch sitting next to her and raised her eyebrow. Shirley was grinning from ear to ear like she always did, her blue eyes as wide as a child looking to help its mother in the kitchen. "What do you mean 'do I have an extra potato peeler on me', Liberion?" Gertrud growled. Shirley laughed again and watched Gertrud's face begin to turn red and her fingers dig deep into the potato and leave marks in the starchy white material of the tuber.

"Relax, Trude," Shirley said calmly. "I just want to help." She began to laugh again at watching her squadron-mate and fellow with grow incensed at her presence. Gertrud continue to gnash her teeth and dig her fingers into the potato until she noticed an extra potato peeler sitting on the table. She picked it up and flung it across the table into Shirley's hands. Much to her surprise, Shirley stopped laughing, grabbed a potato from the pile on the table, sat down and began to peel the potato in silence.

Gertrud sighed and went back to peeling her own potatoes. Shirley's presence hung over her as she shaved the skin off of one potato after another. She couldn't help but glance at the Liberion witch next to her and was surprised to find that, unlike her, she was taking her time peeling the potato in her hands.

* * *

Gertrud figured that Shirley's visit was a one time affair, but she never did. For the remainder of her sentence Shirley would join Gertrud and help her sheer the skin off the starchy tubers. Gertrud never once expected Shirley to show up to help her, who was she help a soldier who was sentenced after court marshal for breaking orders? But everyday she was pleasantly surprised to see the buxom witch come take her place at the table and peel potatoes with her.

The visits were devoid of conversation, the two witches maintaining a vow of silence akin to nuns cloistered in an abbey. Gertrud refused to say anything to Shirley, not even a "Guten Tag" when Shirley arrived or a "Wiedersehen" when she left. And while Shirley maintained this silence with Gertrud without qualm. Initially Gertrud appreciated the silence, but eventually she found herself increasingly unnerved by the lack of conversation between herself and the Liberion witch, a feeling which was amplified by Shirley's curious blue eyes constantly sneaking glances over at her as if to suggest that Shirley was looking for something.

"I know you can peel potatoes faster then you are, Liberion," Gertrud stated. Shirley turned her head and stopped peeling a potato in her hand. "Why don't you make yourself useful and speed up a bit? Mach schnell!"

Shirley chuckled and went back to peeling the potato at a relaxed pace. Gertrud ground her teeth into one another and again dug her fingernails. "What is it with you, Liberion?!" Gertrud shouted.

"What is it with me?" Shirley said with a smile. Gertrud slammed the potato peeler on the table and stood up from her seat, clenching her fists and furrowing her brow at Shirley while the red haired witch continued to peel a potato. Shirley watched as Gertrud tried to sputter some words out of her mouth only to produce a fury of "hnghs" and "mmrfs" before pointing over to the pile crates packed with potatoes sitting next to them.

"I am not going to be slowed down by someone who wants to lollygag about like you are, Liberion!" Gertrud spat as she pointed at the crates. "You've only peeled five potatoes today and I have a quota of at least two hundred more to meet by sunset, and all you're doing is..."

"Making sure you only have to peel 195 more potatoes instead of 200, Trude?" Shirley quipped.

Gertrud stopped and felt her jaw drop open. She watched Shirley's grin hold itself across her face and stay wide and bright, gleaming on her while she stood there with her fists clenched easing open and the blood that had rushed into her face slip back into her hands. Shirley laughed and grabbed another potato to peel. Gertrud stood there for a few more moments before sitting back down and going back to peeling another potato. Shirley turned her hair to face the Karlsland witch. Gertrud never bothered looking her in the eyes.

It was only as she began to shave away the skin of the potato that Gertrud realized she only had 194 potatoes left to peel for the day.


	2. Training Flights

Minna eventually lifted Gertrud's sentence and allowed her to resume normal flying activities once again. Gertrud rejoiced at the fact that she would no longer have to peel the potatoes and could get back into the sky. Her desire to get airborne again had become an insatiable hunger that no amount of chin ups, weapon stripping, or any other activity that she did could satisfy. She didn't even care that Minna had told her she would have to fly with a wing-man on all training missions until further notice.

Gertrud didn't think much of who would be flying with her on a training mission, as she felt all the witches in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing had developed enough skill to keep up with her in most conditions. She figured it would be Erica Hartmann, the "Ultra Ace" of Karlsland whom she confided in more then any other witch in the 501st, or even Yoshika Miyafuji, the witch from Fuso whom Gertrud was forever grateful toward after she saved her life back in 1944 in Britannia. So Gertrud was given a strong surprise when she found neither Erica, Yoshika, or any other witch but the one who had been peeling potatoes with her, standing in her Striker Unit and waving her hand with the same pearly white grin that she had when peeling potatoes spread across her face.

Gertrud gasped and stepped back a bit. "What are you doing here, Liberion?" Gertrud asked. "Haven't we spent enough time together over these past few weeks?"

Shirley let out another one of her signature laughs which sent her large bosom bouncing. Gertrud stayed back at the edge of the hangar. "Remember when Minna said you needed a partner for your training flights? Well, I volunteered for the position!"

"Why would you volunteer to be my training partner?"

"Lets be honest, Trude. If you lose control and go into an unrecoverable dive in flight like you did with the jet striker, I'm the only one who's going to be able to catch you." At no point did Shirley's grin ever shrink from her visage.

Gertrud wanted to challenge Shirley's claim, wanting desperately to retort it with something that would prove Shirley wrong. Her magical abilities were unquestioned by virtually every witch that she had encountered, both in the 501st and abroad, and to hear them questioned in manner that called into certainty her power was jarring at best, a slap in the face at worst. She swore as she stood there with her fists clenched that she could hear Shirley laughing at her. She would never let anyone tell her that she was anything less then capable in flight.

Silently, she walked across the hangar and stepped into her FW190 striker unit. After activating her powers, the Jumo radial engine in the striker roared to life, only to be followed (and largely drowned out) by the even louder cacophony of the Merlin V engine in Shirley's P51 striker. "Lets go then, Yeager."

Gertrud opened the throttle and the Jumo engine powering her striker she made her way forward. Shirley followed closely, staying behind her to her left as they took off from the base and made their way into the sky. It wasn't until they were airborne and at cruising speed that Gertrud realized not only how close Shirley was to her but that she had called Shirley something other then "Liberion".

* * *

Whenever Gertrud Barkhorn would take to the sky for a training flight, Shirley Yeager would be flying slightly behind her to the left, just like Shirley had promised. It didn't matter what the weather was, where they would be flying, what kind of mission Gertrud wanted to take up, what kind of maneuvers she wanted to do, or any other circumstances, Shirley would always be willing to go up with her. And while Gertrud desperately wanted to fly alone and show Minna that she didn't need a wing-man while she brushed up on her technique, after awhile she didn't mind having Shirley flying alongside her. Somehow, flying with the buxom red haired witch became almost expected of her.

Though the two witches had become increasingly familiar with one another and had even moved past the forced silence Gertrud imposed on them to having short but real conversations about flying, Gertrud still didn't want to express how she felt like she owed Shirley in the same way she felt indebted to Yoshika. Shirley had saved her life and had agreed to take time out of her day to help her get back up to speed, a fact that she appreciated but felt unwilling to acknowledge. Acknowledging it, she felt, would be as insignificant as the clouds in the sky. Besides, she thought, it wasn't like Shirley was holding Gertrud to some kind of "IOU" arrangement anyway.

Eventually Gertrud worked up enough strength to want to try wielding weapons in flight again. Once again Shirley accompanied her, this time armed with her BAR while Gertrud carried her twin MG 151/20 auto-cannons. The two flew over the coast to an course of barrage balloons strung out over the Aegean coastline, stopping once they arrived at the site of the first balloons.

"First one to destroy all of their balloons wins," Gertrud explained. She flicked the safety catch off of her MG 151/20s and held them at her shoulders. "Are you ready, Yeager?"

Shirley slipped her goggles over her eyes and cocked her BAR. "Ready when you are, Trude."

"Eins, zwei, drei, go!"

The two witches shot forward and charged at their respective targets. Each witch took as little time at each target as possible, spraying their ammo into the balloons until their explosive charges detonated and the balloons plummeted into the sea. The two witches went back and forth through the initial stages of the contest; Shirley's speed allowing her to briskly move from one target to the next while Gertrud's extra firepower and more competent marksmanship skills assured the Karlsland witch that she'd have to spend much less time shooting at the balloons then Shirley would. Gertrud kept a close eye on Shirley's progress as the balloons fell from the sky.

The two witches were in a dead heat going toward the final balloon. Gertrud lined up the balloon in her sights and dove on the balloon, unleashing a barrage of twenty millimeter shells into the balloon until it fell out of the sky. She glanced to her left as she continued to descend and saw Shirley's balloon still hovering in the sky, perfectly intact with Shirley nowhere in sight. She smirked. "That was too easy," Gertrud remarked.

"Trude, look out!" Shirley shouted. Gertrud looked back ahead and found herself approaching the water at ever increasing speed. Quickly she tried to cut down the power from her striker unit and pull her legs up but none of that was necessary. In one motion, she found herself flying straight ahead and then climbing back up into the sky, held around the waist from behind by Shirley.

"What are you doing, Yeager?" she asked. She twisted herself left and right until let her go and began to fly on her own, turning backwards to face Shirley as Shirley stopped to over. "I could've easily recovered from that dive and you know it! Why did you break from your target like that?"

"Because," Shirley said. She slung her BAR over her shoulder. "You weren't paying attention and were about to crash into the sea."

Gertrud shook her head and refused to listen to Shirley. "I could've broken out of that dive," she stated bluntly. "Besides, you remember the rules of dog-fighting, right? If you leave your target you leave yourself vulnerable counterattack. Had that balloon been a neuroi you would've been killed trying to go after me."

The two stood facing each other silently for a moment, staring at each other stoically as the waves crashed against the Romagnan coast. Shirley whipped her BAR off her back and spun around, unleashing a torrent of bullets into the balloon behind her until it exploded in a ball of fire and crashed into the sea. Gertrud watched as the balloon fell into the Aegean lifelessly. Shirley never turned to face Gertrud as the balloon descended. Only when Gertrud flew past her in the direction of their base did Shirley turn herself forward and once again took her place in flight with Gertrud, slightly behind her to her left and slightly above her.

"The people who I care about are of far greater concern to me then any neuroi, Trude," Shirley said solemnly. "I thought you of all people would understand that."

Gertrud looked back at Shirley and saw that the Liberion witch no longer had her signature grin on her face but instead an absolute straight, stone like look on her face as they flew back toward their base. She shook her head and looked forward for the rest of the flight. Occasionally though, she would look out of the corner of her eye to see if Shirley was still there and smiling. The Liberion witch once again never left Gertrud's side but the stoic look on her face never changed for the remainder of their flight.


	3. Back to the Front

Gertrud only did two more training flights following the weapons training exercise, focusing on hard maneuvers and marksmanship in dogfighting over other matters. Shirley again joined her for these exercises, which went over without incident and Gertrud consciously made the decision not to push herself to those limits. Gertrud not only wanted to earn back some of the trust that she had lost from her commanding officers by showing she could fly safely and aggressively at once, but also did not want Shirley to feel like she had to rescue her again.

The incident involving the balloons bothered Gertrud to no end. Among the witches of the 501st she was widely recognized as having the vastest reserves of magic next to Yoshika Miyafuji, but unlike Yoshika she had the skill to control that magic and maximize it to her full potential. In flight her magical abilities were supposed to be without equal, yet Shirley's actions seemed to prove otherwise, that she was not as talented as she thought she was. Along with those nagging thoughts, Gertrud couldn't get Shirley's words out of her mind. Who was Shirley to tell her that she didn't care about her squad-mates, she thought. If anything, Gertrud cared more for her squadron-mates in a manner that none of them could ever understand, and was far more important then just patting each other on the back and saving each other from falling into the sea. Gertrud drove the other witches into the ground because she wanted to see them maximize their potential and be the best they could be. If Shirley didn't get that, she thought, it was her loss.

Three days after the weapons training exercise, Gertrud was called into Minna's office. She sat down in front of Minna's desk and watched as fellow Karlslandan finished writing some papers before directing her attention to Gertrud and folded her hands.

"I see your training has really picked up over these past two weeks," Minna said. "Is there any reason for that, Trude?"

"I'm trying to prove that I'm ready to get back out on the front line, Minna," Gertrud said. "I can't stand the thought of the squad going up there by myself all this time."

"Well we do miss your firepower up there sometimes, Trude," Minna said with a smile. Gertrud chuckled. "But really now, Mio and I have monitored your progress and are impressed that you've gotten back up to speed so quickly and can already reach your limits again. So it is with my delight that I am clearing you, Captain Gertrud Barkhorn, to fly at full combat readiness, effective immediately."

Gertrud stood up and gave Minna a firm salute. "I won't fail you, ma'am!"

"At ease, Captain Barkhorn," Minna ordered. Gertrud relinquished her salute and sat back down in her chair. "Though I am authorizing your return to combat, I am ordering you to fly with a wing-man just as you had in your training, and not a wing-man of your choosing."

Gertrud's jaw dropped open. "What?! You mean that I have to..."

"Until further notice you will be flying with Captain Yeager," Minna stated stoically. Her hands remained folded as Gertrud began growling and her face became red. "I'm sorry, Trude, but she is the only one I trust with your safety at this time. Until you prove to me that you won't push yourself as you did with the jet striker, you will fly at Shirley's side. Is that understood, Captain Barkhorn?"

Gertrud inhaled deeply and held her breathe, trying to concentrate in a manner that would ensure she didn't say something she'd regret to her commanding officer. After holding her breathe for a few moments, she exhaled and gave a firm salute from her seat, which Minna returned. "Yes ma'am. I understand."

Her compatriot dismissed her a moment later.

* * *

Two days after she was cleared to fly the sirens of the 501st's Romagnan airbase came to life and sent the witches scrambling into the sky. On that day the neuroi launched one of the largest attacks in some time, a massive flight of small sized neuroi that spread itself out across a variety of points on a wide front to the north. To compensate for such a wide spread of acts, Minna and Mio agreed to spread the 501st Joint Fighter Wing into small groups that would each intercept one flight of neuroi at a different point on the front. Shirley and Gertrud were sent to intercept the enemy group attacking their left flank and quickly took off to meet the threat head on without any real knowledge of what they were going up against.

Gertrud didn't have to wait long to find out just how many neuroi were present. The horizon line went from being a straight thin line to being a thick, black and red specked border denoting the separation between land and air. As the two witches got closer and flicked the safety catches off their weapons, the sheer number of neuroi apparent in the flight was unlike Gertrud had seen in some time, a massive number of twenty neuroi. The hexagonal shaped aliens began to separate from themselves and diverge in different directions toward her and Shirley, turning into them to begin their attack.

"I'll take half and you get the others," Gertrud shouted. "Stay out of my way and we'll just be fine. Got it?"

"You got it, Trude." Gertrud watched as Shirley channeled her magical energy into her striker unit and shot up high into the air, carrying a flight of five neuroi after her as she charged up into the sky. Gertrud then stared down the other flight of neuroi and leveled her MG 151/20 cannons and then smirked. "Watch how it's done, Liberion," she said to herself, making sure to call Shirley the name she felt was most fitting.

As the neuroi began to fire their red beams of energy Gertrud put up her shield and went to engage the enemy. She flew briskly between each of the small hexagonal aliens, firing her 20mm cannons with great accuracy as she dodged and deflected the beams coming at her. One by one the small neuroi began to explode as she cut down their cores, her torrent of 20mm fire and her maneuvers never failing to result in another kill for her already impressive 280+ shoot down count. As the neuroi fell from the sky one by one, she took time to check her surroundings and look for Shirley. Much to Gertrud's delight, Shirley had no trouble dealing with the neuroi chasing after her, using a combination of her speed and her shield to ensure that the neuroi would disappear from the sky.

"Not bad, Yeager," Gertrud remarked as she hovered in the sky. Shirley flew over her head with a neuroi in pursuit. "You've clearly come along way from when we first met."

At that moment the neuroi pursuing Shirley abandoned its chase and fired a beam of red light right at Gertrud. Gertrud quickly put up her shield and deflected the beam away from her, sending in scattering in different directions as the neuroi shot over her head. Gertrud sighed and looked around the sky for Shirley but did not see her anywhere above her or to her flanks. It was only when she looked down did Gertrud see Shirley falling toward the earth with a flaming Striker unit still attached to her leg. Only then did Gertrud piece together that Shirley was hit by a deflected section of the beam that had been shot at her.

"Yeager!"

Simultaneously, the neuroi began to come around for another pass at her. Gertrud felt the color drain from her face as her eyes darted back and forth between Shirley and the neuroi coming at her. Without regard for what she had told Shirley during the weapons training exercise, Gertrud dropped her weapons and shot off into a dive after Shirley. She held out her hand as far as she could as she sent all the magical power possible to her FW-190 striker's Jumo engines. The neuroi maintained its pursuit, closing the distance between Shirley, Gertrud, and itself at an ever increasing rate. Gertrud though never took her eyes off of Shirley, holding her gaze onto the Liberion witch tightly as she stretched her hand out.

"Grab my hand, Yeager!" Gertrud ordered.

"Trude!" Shirley called out. Gertrud watched as Shirley sent all her remaining power to her still intact half of her striker and began to slow down, slowing down just enough for Gertrud to grab Shirley by the hand and pull her into her grasp, holding her in a tight embrace with all the magically enhanced strength she had to offer. Gertrud pulled Shirley quickly against her before pulling up out of the dive, holding Shirley as the Liberion witch leveled her BAR on her shoulder and unleashed a torrent of .30-06 bullets into the neuroi, destroying its core and shattering the black and red alien into many pieces.

As the neuroi disintegrated into the air Gertrud pulled up into the sky and hovered for a few moments. Shirley was tightly grasped to her, holding onto her shoulders tightly as she ground her teeth together in pain and refused to make a sound. "Yeager?" Gertrud asked. "Yeager, talk to me. Talk to me, please!"

Gertrud picked up Shirley's head and watched as the Liberion body began to limp and fall in her arms. Without thinking, Gertrud flipped Shirley into her arms bridal style, channeled all her strength onto one arm, and began to pull away the smoldering wreck of Shirley's P51 Striker from her leg revealing mangled mess of engine parts that, under it all, revealed a connecting rod driven deep into Shirley's femur as the rest of the striker unit fell into the ocean.

"Trude," Shirley muttered. Gertrud looked down and saw Shirley's blue eyes squinting open and her teeth clamped together, tears pouring down her face as she rested in her arms. Shirley held this face for a few moments as best she could, trying to chuckle while she held her leg and gave the Karlsland witch a grimacing smile.


	4. Refusals and Promises

Gertrud and Shirley were the last ones to make it back to the base after the battle that day. When they arrived everyone immediately greeted them with a flood of worrying questions and distress, clearly worried by seeing Shirley with a metal rod protruding from her badly burned left leg. Gertrud quickly dismounted herself from her striker unit and cradled Shirley tightly. Shirley in turn wrapped her arms around Gertrud's neck and never once let the grimacing smile fade from her face, even as her blue eyes poured tears down her face. Even as Gertrud ran her down to the infirmary and placed her as gently as possible into a bed for Yoshika and then left the room at Yoshika's insistence, the smile never once left Shirley's face.

The other witches, aside from Mio and Minna, gathered outside of the infirmary while Yoshika worked her magic on Shirley, waiting with anticipation for Yoshika to emerge with a prognosis. The normally calm Gertrud paced about the hallway in front of her fellow witches up and down the hallway near the infirmary door, holding a look on her face that gave away her clear distress and feelings of guilt on Shirley's condition to the rest of the entire squadron. Her pacing caused the already tense witches in the 501st Joint Fighter Wing to watch with confusion. None of them, not even her longtime squadron-mate Erica Hartmann, had ever seen Gertrud seem so distressed about anything, especially an injury to a comrade.

Eventually Mio, Minna, and Yoshika emerged from the infirmary. Gertrud stopped pacing and immediately made her way over to her commanding officers. "Well?" Gertrud burst out, the distress dressing her voice making itself readily apparent. "What's going on? Is she going to be okay or what?"

Mio and Minna each gave a light smile while Yoshika wiped the sweat from her brow. "Shirley's going to be just fine, Captain Barkhorn," Mio assured. "All thanks to you."

"Me?" Gertrud said in shock. "What are you talking about?"

"Shirley told me everything, Trude," Minna explained. "She told me how you saved her from crashing, managed to shoot down the neuroi, and tear her striker unit off her leg in the heat of battle." Minna put her hand on Gertrud's shoulder. "I'm going to tell you right now, Trude, I'm submitting a recommendation to the Allied High Command and the Luftwaffe for you to receive the swords for your Knights' Cross of Iron. And Shirley has recommended to me that I also put in a word for you to be considered for Liberion's highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor."

"Wow, you could be getting all the jewelry, Trude," Erica Hartmann remarked. Gertrud quickly shot over to Erica and grabbed her by the collar of her black flying jacket "Hey!" The short blonde witch squirmed in Gertrud's grasp. "What are you doing, Trude?"

"Don't you ever talk about the Knight's Cross or the valor of a soldier in vain, Hartmann!" Gertrud shouted. The other witches in the 501st looked at her confused. None of them were used to seeing the young woman who they had come to view as the emotional rock of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing and a hero all of them looked up to act in such a way. Gertrud released her grip and let Erica fall to onto the floor before turning to Minna.

"I'm sorry, Minna, but what Shirley told you is a lie. I don't deserve any awards after what happened today. So please, rescind those recommendations as soon as possible."

Gertrud stormed down the hallway and headed toward her quarters. None of the other witches bothered following her and she would not have wanted them to bother. Nothing but time alone, she felt, was adequate for her to drain her emotions in the wake of today's actions.

* * *

Eventually, when Sanya departed for the night patrol and the other witches had eaten dinner and calmed down from the events of the previous day, Minna approached Gertrud and told her to report to the infirmary. Gertrud did not understand why Minna wanted her to go to the infirmary, but she put her dishes away and reported to the 501st's medical center without ever giving thought to the idea of questioning her commanding officer.

She opened the door to the infirmary slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. Inside the infirmary, laying on a white bed under the moonlight, was Shirley. The Liberion girl was stripped from her uniform, only wearing one of her pink bras and some underwear while she rested peacefully on the bed. From the edge of the room Gertrud could see Shirley's large bosom gently heave up and down as she rested in the bed on her back. Most jarring to Gertrud was Shirley's left leg, which was encased in a plaster cast and suspended lowly from a sling hanging from the ceiling. Yet even in her clearly wounded state, Gertrud never once thought Shirley looked ugly or disfigured. In fact, she thought, she felt Shirley looked rather beautiful in such a content state.

She wanted to turn back and leave the infirmary, but she reasoned in her head that it wouldn't hurt to sit next to Shirley for a bit. Slowly, she began to make her way across the room, hoping not to wake Shirley up or even cause a stir. Unfortunately, her attempt wasn't successful.

"Mmmm," Shirley said as she stirred in her sleep. "Who's there?" She opened her eyes slowly and turned her head to her left, looking over and locking eyes with Gertrud. Gertrud froze in place, her legs unable to even move backwards so she could make a hasty retreat. "Trude?" Shirley muttered.

"Guten A-abend, Captain Yeager," Gertrud said nervously. She went to step back but couldn't move an inch. "Wie gehts?" She cursed herself for not speaking Britannian, the language that was universal among the members of the 501st, and instead speaking in her mother tongue.

Shirley giggled and leaned over on her side as best she could. The blanket slipped away and revealed the lines to Shirley's voluptuous bust. "Gut, Trude. Und du?"

Gertrud raised her eyebrow and remained still. "Since when did you speak Karlslandisch?"

Shirley giggled. "From being around you and Hartmann. I only know a little, so be easy on me." She nodded over to a chair next to the bed. "Come here and sit down. Stay awhile, won't you?"

Gertrud gave a small smile and walked over to the chair, turning it forward to face Shirley. The Liberion witch had her signature grin on her face and the typical eager yet welcoming look in her blue eyes. Gertrud remained absolutely still in her seat. "I really want to thank you for everything you did today."

"Will you stop with that!" Gertrud ordered, raising her voice to Shirley. Shirley gave her a confused look and Gertrud realized that she had shouted. "I'm sorry, but I don't deserve any thanks or recognition. I appreciate you recommending me for the United States of Liberion's highest honor, but I don't deserve it."

"Why would you say that, Trude?" Shirley asked. The smile on Shirley's face held still as she leaned over to look Gertrud in her eyes. Gertrud tried to look away, not wanting to make eye contact or get caught staring at Shirley's body.

"Because," she began. "I didn't do anything but get in your way after I told you to stay out of mine." She tilted her head down and clenched the backrest of the chair. "I'm such a hypocrite, Yeager. I don't deserve any recognition."

Shirley reached out with her right hand and touched Gertrud's left hand, which was resting on the backrest of the chair. Gertrud felt her whole arm tingle as Shirley wrapped her thumb around Gertrud's palm and placed her fingers on top of Trude's. Once again, Shirley's eyes locked with Gertrud's, and they remained locked as Shirley gently grasped Gertrud's hand in her own. Gertrud never made any effort to release her hand from Shirley's grip or to not look into Shirley's eyes.

"Don't _ever_ think that you get in other people's way, Trude," Shirley assured her. The moonlight shined on Shirley's white skin and highlighted her curvacious features. Shirley's words made Gertrud's heart skip a beat for a moment. "Captain Barkhorn?"

"Yes, Captain Yeager?" Gertrud replied. Her whole hand seemed to pulse in Shirley's grasp, sending a warm feeling up her arm and down through her body.

"Promise me that when I get back on my feet that we'll go flying again, alright?"

Gertrud sighed and gave Shirley a smile, the best smile that she possibly could give Shirley. "I promise, Yeager. We'll definitely going flying again when you get back on your feet."


	5. Thoughts

**AN: My apologies for this taking so long. Technical issues and the pressures of my final semester of college made this update take forever. Come summertime, updates will become more regular. **

* * *

Thanks to Yoshika's healing magic and some general rest and relaxation Shirley was out of her cast in a few short days. Those days that she wasn't flying with the squadron felt alien to Gertrud. All the training missions they had done together after her own injury and the sheer amount of time they had spent with one another since 1944 made flying without Shirley seem lacking to her. Flying without her had gone from being just another thing she had to deal with to a genuine feeling of loneliness. Without the buxom witch at her side, Gertrud almost felt like she was flying without half of her striker unit attached.

The day that Shirley returned to the sky was a quiet for the 501st and Gertrud Barkhorn. Minna had given the squadron a day off after receiving reports that the neuroi threat for the day was virtually nonexistent, so Gertrud was at a loss for what to do with her time. As she walked about the base, she was stunned to find Shirley back in her red flight jacket and white blouse tinkering away at her P51 striker. Gertrud stood at the edge of the hangar, remaining absolutely still as she looked at Shirley wipe sweat from her brow with a rag and twist some bolts inside of her striker unit's reciprocating engine in a crouched position that gave her a great view of Shirley's silk white panties.

Gertrud remained still at the edge of the hangar and stayed silent for a few moments, but her cover was blown when she felt the grasp of two hands latching themselves onto her breasts through her grey Karlsland military jacket, causing the normally stoic Gertrud to scream. At her scream, Shirley poked her head up from the cowlings of her striker unit to see Gertrud being groped by her protege, Francesca Lucchini. Gertrud felt her mouth go dry as Shirley caught sight of her and let out a boisterous laugh.

"Francesca!" Shirley called out playfully. "Stop feeling up the good captain, won't you?"

Francesca sighed and relinquished Gertrud's breasts, turning the Karlsland witch a shade of tomato red. "Nothing to write home about," Francesca said plainly. "Still just average and far too firm." The Romagnan witch looked back at Gertrud with condescending straight face. "Consider taking a break from all those situps. No one's going to want to lay on a chest as rock solid as yours."

"Ensign Francesca Lucchini!" Gertrud shouted with clenched fists. Shirley continued to laugh boisterously, making Gertrud unclench her fists and continue to blush a shade of beet red. The noise of Shirley's laugh made her heart feel like it was going to jump out of her chest, and she remained at the edge of the hangar for a few moments until Shirley called her over.

"What are you up to today, Trude?" Shirley asked. "Got any plans for your day off?"

Gertrud's mind began to produce an almost film-like series of fantasies involving Shirley resting on her chest, making the words she was going to speak retreat into her throat and her tongue become as dry as a desert. "Sadly none, Yeager," Gertrud said. "I could ask Hartmann to clean her half of our room, I suppose, but that would just be pointless."

Shirley let out a small laugh. "How about we going flying?" Shirley proposed. "I'm dying to get this new P51 into the sky already."

"You sure you're ready for that?" Gertrud said.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Shirley said. "It's not like I'm running out of magic or anything. So what do you say, Trude?"

She glanced over at Shirley's striker. The normally star painted and striped designs that adorned Shirley's striker were absent, instead making the striker a stark silver color that looked as if it had just arrived from the factory in the United States. She then glanced over at Shirley's leg. It bore no signs of the grisly injury that she felt responsible for. Seeing the limb so clean and unscathed took away any pause that Gertrud may have had regarding Shirley.

"I say lets go flying, Yeager."

* * *

"Trude, can I ask you something?"

Gertrud glanced over her shoulder at Shirley. Once again the buxom redhead was flying behind and above her, hanging slightly to her left. Gertrud flew ahead of Shirley, funneling a steady flow of magic into her FW-190 striker while Shirley kept close behind. The sky in front of them was a perfectly clear blue and the sun radiated gently down onto their bodies. "What is it?"

"What are you going to do when this is all over?"

Gertrud kept moving but felt her mind pause as she kept moving forward over the Romagnan countryside. The air rushed over her face and fluttered her pig-tails back and forth as she moved her way through the sky with Shirley maintaining vigil over her. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm curious I suppose," Shirley stated.

"Well what are you going to do after the war?" Gertrud asked.

Shirley began to chuckle and dipped down into a short descent, taking her place alongside Gertrud and looking over at the nineteen year old witch. "It's a funny story about that. Have you ever heard of a man named Howard Hughes?"

Gertrud raised her eyebrows. "Of course I have. Hartmann loves watching his movies, especially that one about the first neuroi war, _Hells Angels_."

"Well, as it turns out, Howard Hughes is making a sequel to _Hells Angels_ and he wants me to be in it," Shirley said proudly. "I'll even do my own stunts." A wide grin developed across her face.

"Why does that not surprise me one bit," Gertrud said.

"What do you mean?"

"You getting asked to be in a movie," Gertrud said. "It just seems like something you'd do. You always enjoy being at the center of attention."

"Ain't it the truth?" Shirley laughed and Gertrud looked over at her. She still did not understand the Liberion witch's willingness to admit such things about herself. "So, what are you doing to do when the war's over?"

Truth be told, Gertrud had not thought about what she wanted to do after the war. The military had been a life she had known since she was ten years old and fighting the neuroi had been all she knew since 1939. She knew one day her magic would probably deteriorate to the point where she could no longer be an effective witch for the material, but until then she had decided she would keep fighting as long as she could. When that was impossible she would have to reconsider her options. The doctrine Karlsland's conventional forces did not allow women to join beyond being nurses, and as someone who knew nothing about medicine, that was out of the question. For a brief moment as she flew in the air she entertained the thought of maybe masquerading as man and re-enlisting, but that was nothing more than a fleeting fantasy.

"I really don't know," Gertrud replied. "I haven't thought about it."

"You haven't? Why not?"

Gertrud paused and thought about her answer to Shirley. For reasons unknown to her the memories of the weapons training incident flashed back in her mind, and it made her consider her response. "All that I think about is making sure my fellow witches and I can see the end of the war in one piece," she explained. "When it's over, then I'll think about what I want to do."

There was a brief silence between the two witches as they continued across the Romagnan countryside. "You know, I know something you'd be good at, Trude."

"What's that?"

"I think you'd be a great writer," Shirley said.

"Writer? All I write are combat reports."

"Well maybe you can write something about all those combat reports?"

"Like a history book?"

"Yeah, like a history book," Shirley said. "You could call it _Coven of Witches_ or something. I think you could do it."

"I don't know," Gertrud said. "I don't exactly have a literary touch."

"Well would you at least try for me, Trude? Please?"

Gertrud looked over to her left. Shirley was looking intently at her, a curious but caring expression strewn across her face as they continued their cruise through the skies. Gertrud felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at the Liberion witch and felt her heart warm up. Something about what Shirley was asking her and the way she was looking at her made Gertrud feel a way she had not felt in a long time. The only person she saw look at her that were Erica and Minna, and neither of them made her feel the sort of warm, gentle feeling that Shirley was making her feel. What was this, she thought. Why does she make me feel this way? And why does she care about the future.

"I'll try it," Gertrud said. "But just try. No guarantees it'll be finished."

Shirley's expression changed into a warm, exuberant smile. "Good. Now then," she began. She tilted her strikers and shot up high into the air. "Lets see if you can keep up with me without a jet striker."

Gertrud smiled and began to pump magic into her FW-190, shooting up toward Shirley as they both ascended to greater heights. "You're on, _Shirley_."


End file.
